Staples Dominate Ghana’s Plates as Millions Struggle to Afford Healthy Food

A new World Bank and CSIR-Savanna report warns that Ghana’s diets are calorie-rich but nutritionally poor, with heavy reliance on staples leaving 63% of people unable to afford healthy meals. It calls for urgent reforms, aligning national dietary guidelines with global sustainability targets, diversifying food production, and promoting affordable plant-based proteins, to improve health and cut emissions.

Ghana’s relationship with food has reached a turning point, according to a new World Bank working paper prepared with the Agriculture and Food Global Department and the CSIR-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute in Tamale. Written by Francis Addeah Darko and Edward Martey, the study reveals that while the country has made progress in ensuring food availability, the health and sustainability of Ghanaian diets remain deeply troubling. Calories are abundant; the national supply stands at 135 percent of adequacy, yet 21.1 million people, or 63 percent of the population, cannot afford a healthy diet. Staples dominate the plate at nearly three times the recommended levels, while fruits, vegetables, and legumes are consumed at less than half of what is advised. The result is a stark “triple burden of malnutrition”: undernutrition, obesity, and micronutrient deficiencies, all converging in a population facing both hunger and rising non-communicable diseases.

A Heavy Environmental Footprint

The imbalance is not just a health concern but an environmental one. Current Ghanaian diets generate 46 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year, far overshooting sustainability benchmarks. As incomes rise, meat consumption grows proportionately, with data showing that every 1,000 Ghanaian cedis added to income increases meat’s share of total calories by 0.3 percent. Without corrective measures, this trend will amplify dietary emissions and put pressure on the country’s climate commitments. Modeling different protein sources illustrates the stakes clearly: shifting fully to plant-based proteins could cut emissions by 42 percent, while a beef-based diet would more than triple them. White meat and fish, by contrast, offer far lower environmental impacts, making them more sustainable alternatives.

The Promise of Pareto Optimization

To chart a way forward, the study applies Pareto optimization to balance cost, nutrition, and emissions. Under Ghana’s current government dietary guidelines, it is possible to reduce emissions by up to 32 percent, but only at the expense of higher costs to households. The picture changes dramatically with the EAT-Lancet planetary health diet. This model, rooted in international research on sustainable nutrition, achieves around 70 percent lower emissions while reducing costs by nearly half. The comparison underscores a critical point: Ghana’s national dietary guidelines are structurally incapable of meeting sustainability goals, while the EAT-Lancet framework consistently delivers superior results. Optimized models also show just how far consumption patterns must shift. Fruits would need to rise by 300 percent, vegetables by 130 percent, legumes by 120 percent, and animal-sourced foods by 220 percent, while staples would have to be cut by half. The EAT-Lancet pathway demands less dramatic but more effective changes, making it not only healthier and greener but also more feasible.

Policy Gains and Persistent Gaps

Ghana’s food policy has evolved significantly since 2014, moving from a narrow focus on food security to a broader embrace of nutrition and sustainability. The Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy set the stage, followed by the National Nutrition Policy of 2016, which addressed both undernutrition and obesity. The School Feeding Programme was revamped to source more local foods and improve quality, while the flagship Planting for Food and Jobs initiative expanded crop diversity. The launch of the country’s first National Food-Based Dietary Guidelines in 2023, using the image of a traditional mashing bowl to communicate balance and diversity, was hailed as a milestone. Yet despite this progress, the report warns that gaps remain in implementation, funding, and infrastructure. At $4.29 per person per day, the cost of a healthy diet in Ghana is higher than in both Sub-Saharan Africa and the world overall, making affordability a systemic barrier.

A Call for Bold Reforms

The report concludes with a comprehensive set of recommendations aimed at reshaping Ghana’s dietary future. National guidelines must be revised to align with global sustainability benchmarks while respecting cultural traditions. Agricultural production must diversify beyond staples to include more fruits, vegetables, and legumes, supported by better storage, transport, and market infrastructure to address Ghana’s unusually high food supply variability. Social protection measures, including expanded school feeding and targeted food assistance, are needed to make healthy diets accessible to the poor. Equally important is the development of a sustainable protein transition policy that encourages plant-based proteins, fish, and white meat while breaking the link between rising income and higher red meat consumption. Nutrition education campaigns must intensify to promote healthier choices across all age groups, while data systems should be strengthened to monitor both nutrition and environmental impact.

The authors stress that Ghana’s dietary transition is not simply about personal choice but about systemic change at the intersection of agriculture, health, and climate policy. Without action, the current trajectory risks worsening malnutrition, driving up health costs, and undermining environmental goals. With the right reforms, however, Ghana can turn its dietary transition into an opportunity: ensuring that its growing population eats well, lives healthier lives, and does so within the planet’s ecological limits. The next decade of policy decisions, the report suggests, will determine whether the country locks itself into unsustainable patterns or becomes a model for balancing food security, nutrition, and sustainability in Africa.